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Relatives Demand Answers in Search for Missing Malaysian Jet

April 21, 2014 12:20 PM

Shannon Van Sant

A relative of Chinese passengers onboard the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, cries as she asks for answers during a meeting with Malaysia embassy and Malaysia Airlines representatives in Beijing, April 21, 2014.

The families of passengers aboard Flight 370 have released questions for authorities searching for the flight. Sarah Bajc, whose boyfriend Philip Wood was on the flight, sent an e-mail to reporters in the name of the United Families of MH370.

The letter asks for an independent peer review of the data British satellite company Inmarsat. The company's data and subsequent analysis were used to conclude the flight went down in the South Indian Ocean. The letter also criticized authorities for issuing death certificates before the plane is found and failing to share information with the next of kin before releasing it to the press.

An envoy from the Malaysian embassy met with more than 300 family members at a hotel in Beijing Monday. They say he provided few answers to their questions and want to meet with authorities that can provide technical answers to their questions instead. Steve Wang’s mother was a passenger on flight 370.

“We are totally angry about what they have done. You know it should be a high level technical team to communicate with us about technical questions," said Wang.

During the meeting, people shouted questions at the Malaysian envoy, broke down in tears and paramedics had to treat one woman who collapsed. Several times throughout the meeting family members chanted “give us our loved ones.” Several people, like this family, had questions for the envoy.

"My son was on that plane. Other people’s sons, wives and families were on that plane. Many of us believe that our loved ones were alive and are alive, but you haven’t been searching in the right place so far. You simply assume that they are no longer with us. We desperately want a technical team to come to Beijing to help us. All of us have a burning question in our hearts, and this is where our loved ones are...we don’t know whether they are alive or dead," he said.

The Malaysian envoy Monday said another team of authorities from Kuala Lumpur would travel to Beijing within 24 hours to answer the relatives’ questions.

“I request the kind cooperation of all of the family members. We are trying our best," he said.

Flight 370 disappeared more than six weeks ago, on the morning of March 8, with 239 people on board. A pulse signal that could be from the plane was detected off the western coast of Australia. But a U.S. Navy underwater drone has yet to find any sign of the plane.